


Love and Destruction in Equal Measures

by xwannaflyx



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, and they remembered being loved, fuck Rasa I guess, if Temari had Shukaku, if the Sand Siblings had people who loved them, not-Kazekage-Chiyo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 12:58:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17224499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xwannaflyx/pseuds/xwannaflyx
Summary: Rasa realizes the need for Shukaku two children before canon and Karura tries her best to protect her unborn child from the machinations of her husband. Temari is born the first child of the Kazekage, Karura's little miracle, and the terribly dangerous host of the Shukaku. This changes Suna.





	Love and Destruction in Equal Measures

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wayfarerwrites](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=wayfarerwrites).



> My gift for wayfarerwrites for Naruto Secret Santa Exchange! I'm so sorry that it's late! The fic ended up a little rushed and a little convoluted but I hope you enjoy!

They told her that she is lucky to survive. They told her a lot of things but she remains deaf to it all as she cradles her perfect little miracle in her arms, the eyes staring back at her a faraway blue. She gently pet the beautiful soft blonde down covering the child’s head and let out a weak sob, staring down at the little miracle that she had barely managed to save from her husband. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you,” she swore, cradling her child close and gently brushing her lips against her forehead. “I won’t ever let him hurt you.”

Her daughter, her perfect little miracle, opened little eyes that shine golden and starburst before turning back to blue.

 

Temari toddled to her feet, giggling as she followed her rounded, laughing Mother when she suddenly stumbled. “Mama!” Temari shrieked, fear for the precious baby that she already loves ripping through her like the indescribable anger that boils over inside her during her tantrums. Even as she stumbles toward her mother, a gentle wave of sand carefully catches her mother before she can fall. “Mama,” Temari cried hopelessly, plopping down on her bottom now that the danger is gone.

“Hush darling,” Mama said gently, brushing a shaking hand down Temari’s face. “Mama just needs a nurse. Seems your baby brother is impatient to meet you.” She let out a half groan half laugh as she firmly rubbed her rounded belly, the other hand brushing through the sand that cups around her form.

Temari let out an inconsolable little whine, crawling forward and smacking creeping sand out of her way. She whined again when Mama convulses through another contraction and a wave of sand disappears out the door. There’s a moment of silence as Mama breaths carefully, eyes slipping close.

There’s a squeak and her eyes fluttered open. “Oh,” Mama said, laughing a little as she takes in the shell-shocked nurse whose ankles are still covered in creeping sand. “Thank you, honey,” she said fondly, patting Temari on the cheek.

“My lady!” the nurse squeaked, avoiding the eyes of the strange sharp-eyed daughter of the Kazekage and attempting to avoid more of the hissing sand as she scampered closer. “My lady, perhaps...” she trailed off, eyeing the sand which cradles the Kazekage’s heavily pregnant wife.

“Now darling,” Mama admonished, leaning in and tapping Temari’s nose, causing her to go cross-eyed for a brief moment. “Mama has to go away for a moment so that she can get your baby brother,” Mama said gently, pushing herself half up.

“No, Mama,” Temari protested, little nose scrunching in displeasure. Her forehead wrinkled with thought before she nodded firmly, gently pressing her mother down onto the cradle of sand. “You help,” she demanded rather imperiously, giving the shrieking nurse an impatient scowl as a sandy hand reaches out and herds her beside the mother. Temari ignored her mother and the nurse as she turned to the door concentrating. Slowly, the sand around them begins to move in waves, slowly dragging all three of them on a mostly smooth journey to the medical wing. Baby chuunins and veteran jounins alike flinch and scramble out of the sand mass’s way as it creeps through the hallways of the Kage Residence.

Mama laughed and gasped and shook through the convulsions, eyeing her daughter who burns with an energy that she thinks has nothing to do with the unnamed demon living in her body and have everything to do with her own daughter’s storm.

 

Kankuro grows up the sheltered little brother of a vicious and temperamental older sister and the precious son of the Kazekage’s wife. When he finds out that Mama is pregnant, unlike Temari who had let out shrieks of joy and accidentally flooded the desert with a sandstorm, he sulks for about seven of the nine months. He finally stops sulking when Mama persuades him to place his hand against her swollen belly and something pulses against his hand. “Oh,” he whispered, gently rubbing the spot with his little hand. “Mama, that’s my baby brother,” he whispered, staring up at her with wide eyes.

“We can feel!” Temari shrieked, jerking to a stop beside Kankuro and almost knocking him over in her eagerness. As was common, a wave of sand gently braced Kankuro when he stumbled, righting him before fading back into the ground. “Go thump thump!” Temari demanded, gently pressing her hand against her mother’s belly. “Thump thump, Mama,” Temari pleaded, when there was no response from the baby. She remembered the early memories of her mother gently guiding her hand to feel the movements of her brother’s little life.

Mama laughed her slow throaty laugh, the smile on her face all fond and soft. She shifted in her seat, the pinch of discomfort on her face fading before taking both of her children’s hands and directing them carefully to the gentle (for them, a bit more of a kick for her own internal organs) movements of the baby. “Oh,” Temari sighed, curling in closer, the sand rising around them like a particularly vicious guardian cat.

 

Gaara is born in pain and screaming and the slow fading of the light in Mama’s eyes. Kankuro throw himself around tiny Gaara’s little bed when Temari rages, clinging to the crib and his arms and jaws locked with determination. Despite his actions, Temari’s grief pours out past them, pouring over everything but the little crib and the slow cooling body of her now dead mama.

Suna spends of the first day of Gaara’s birth scrambling into shelter. They spend the next two weeks huddled in their homes and whispering protection prayers to the sky as the winds shriek and scream. Suna slowly resurfaces after these two weeks, digging out of the sand and sweeping the streets. No one comments on the suddenly thicker walls of the Kazekage Residence.

(In another world, Shukaku comes screaming to life on this night, his hold on the baby strong but strained. In another world, he kills the mother as he is born, filled with fury and blood. In another world, Gaara has no one when his mother dies but a fearful father and wary siblings. In another world, Temari doesn’t carefully gather Gaara in her too weak arms and coo gently into his already blood red hair before noticing the way the doctors have slowly stopped moving around her mother’s still form.)

The Kazekage tries to kill Temari seven times after the two week incident, convinced of her instability now that his wife is dead. He almost succeeds on the eighth try when he finally targets Gaara instead. Temari stands over her little brother, sand creeping down her skin like blood as he little brother remains oblivious, playing in the sand. Temari’s eyes glow yellow gold and vicious as she glares out at the jounin who stands frozen in front of her. The sand dome that appears around them takes less than a single instant.

“I won’t permit it,” she hissed, her body glowing red-black with chakra and fury. “I won’t let any of you touch them.”

The jounin only manages a choked off scream before he disappears into the coffin of sand. There’s a burst then silence as the sand slowly begins to slide down into the ground, disappearing all traces of a murder. Temari glances at Gaara who offers her a gap-toothed smile before turning back to his little sand pile. She smiles back fondly, still gold eyes softening. She stares at her son for a long moment before turning to the Kazekage Residence, staring into the single shadowed window at the top of the building, eyes sharpening. “I won’t permit it,” she whispered, quieter and far more dangerous. “I won’t.”

 

She comes for her father in the middle of the night, sneaking past the guards with gentle whispers of sand and coaxing them to sleep. She appears at the window in a wave of sand, her feet swinging childishly back and forth as she watches him startle awake.

He stiffened then stilled, one hand disappearing into his pillow and the other resting casually on his lap, the blankets pooling around his waist. “Temari,” he said slowly, eyes darting from his daughter perched on the windowsill to the silence of the hallway.

“They’re not coming,” Temari said with an easy shrug, the sand swirling around her like an eager but disobedient puppy. “They’re just asleep,” she added, blinking almost indolently. “They didn’t have to get involved.” Her eyes sharpened, the faux casualness disappearing from her posture, “They didn’t need to get involved,” she repeated, the bloodthirsty light of her gaze making clear her meaning.

“You never should have been born,” the Kazekage snarled, suddenly angry and vicious. The way anger twists his face suddenly makes clear the resemblance between the two of them. The way golden dust gathers around him makes the lineage even more clear. “You were a mistake.”

“I was your mistake,” Temari agreed, nodding slowly, her own sand gathering around her trickling from the very walls of the building. “I’m going to be your last mistake,” she added, staring at him almost benignly.

The disappearance of the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, passes uncommented but with slow suspicious glances at the three siblings who remain huddled together at all times. Baki reluctantly takes them in as students for lack of anything to be done. Chiyo takes over the position of Kazekage while refusing to take the title, grumbling crankily that she was far too old to be called Kazekage.

-x-

Much to the bafflement of Baki and the sulky annoyance of Temari’s sand, she decides that she wants to learn to use wind as her weapon, not sand. Gaara, on the other hand, decides that he likes sand. (This is explained to Baki with numerous hand gestures and plenty of adoring looks thrown at the back of Temari who is yelling angrily and playing tug-a-war against her sand for her fan.) Kankuro stares at them both suspiciously then goes and whines at Chiyo-sama until she finally relents and begins to teach him puppetry. Baki very much regrets taking the three troublemakers in.

Gaara becomes rather accustomed to working with sand, Kankuro to puppets. Temari takes to yelling into the ground whenever she falls out of the air and is suddenly snatched out of the air. Most Suna jounins take to warily avoiding the training spaces whenever Temari is practicing. Whether she is successful or a failure, her tantrums or her successes both tended to be rather destructive.

The Sand Siblings slowly make a name for themselves as one of the top “genin” teams of Suna. The fact is secured by the begrudging fondness that “not-Kazekage” Chiyo-sama holds for them mixed with the blatant bloodthirst and dirty fighting that is rather rampant in all three of them.

Therefore, three days after Suna announces to the world its intentions to enter the Konoha Chuunin Exams, Orochimaru finds himself face-to-face with the golden eyes glare of a half-feral Temari who is perched gargoyle-like outside “not-Kazekage” Chiyo-sama’s window.

“Baa-sama said I’m not allowed to murder people without permission,” Temari said slowly, one eye flashing starburst gold as the other remains a dangerous, deep teal. She cocked her head to the side, one side of her face tugging into a dangerous smile, “I’m sure she’s willing to make exceptions,” she snarled, leaning closer and preparing to leap off the ledge she had created.

“No she is not,” Chiyo snapped crankily, sticking her head out her window to fix Orochimaru with a rather displeased and flat stare. “Shouldn’t you be bothering Konoha?” she demanded, glaring at the skinny pale no-longer-a-kid that she remembers always hovering in the Slug Princess’s shadow.

Orochimaru, attempting to regain his dignity from flinching back at one: a tiny girl, and two: an old grandma cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I was going to kill the Kazekage and take her place,” he admitted a little uncomfortably, figuring that he could continue to execute the plan and no one would be wiser.

“Oh he died a while ago,” Temari chirped in, still squinting suspiciously at Orochimaru. “Now we only have ‘not-Kazekage’ Chiyo-baasama.”

Orochimaru stared for a long while at Temari -who seemed to have simply accepted things at face value- and Chiyo -who seemed determined to glare reality into submission- then frowned thoughtfully. “Wouldn’t that make Chiyo-sama the Kazekage?” he pointed out, readying his poisons.

Chiyo-baasama’s scowl deepened as Temari winced, retreating into a sand cocoon. “Your funeral,” she offered with a shrug before disappearing into the air.

 

Two weeks later, Sarutobi receives a bound and gagged Orochimaru sealed within an inch of his life as a present from Suna with a strong recommendation from the “not-Kazekage” to “get his affairs in order you infant” and also that Konoha should open peace treaty discussions with Suna. The missing nin, Chiyo added, was a peace offering and Sarutobi would only have to pay off two-thirds of the reward rather than the full amount. Sarutobi, staring at Orochimaru who is covered in scratches and and seals and is currently listing to the side even within the grip of the ANBU decides to take the wiser route of immediately sending the “not-Kazekage” a polite request to reopen peace talks following the Chuunin Exams.

(In another world, the person wearing -or as it is, refusing to wear- the Kazekage hat is Orochimaru and Sarutobi ends up dead and Konoha grieving. In another world, Gaara goes mad and Naruto and he become the best of friends and his siblings finally learn to hug him. In another world Temari loses -she still loses, strategy isn’t exactly the strongest point of has-an-unending-supply-of-chakra Temari or even the doesn’t-realize-she’s-using-sand-but-basically-is-like-fighting-two-people Temari- and then subsequently rescues Shikamaru. In another world, Sasuke is given the false opportunity for absolute power and Konoha and Naruto have kill themselves trying to get their own back. In another world, Suna becomes an ally only after the fact.)

“I like him,” Temari remarked to the weird someone that always lingered close to the surface but refused to give her their name. “He fights good and is satisfactorily afraid of me,” she added cheerfully, slinging her fan over her shoulder and marching behind Chiyo-baasama’s guards.

**_Ugh, you’re taste is the worst_ **  they replied, rather sulkily.  **_He smells like prey_ **  they added. Temari can almost see the presence turn their back, preparing for a major sulk.

“The prey kicked your ass,” Temari pointed out with a rather raucous laugh, ignoring the faintly alarmed stares she was attracting from everyone but her siblings and Chiyo-baasama herself. “You’re just sulking because you got your ass kicked by someone that’s not even old enough to drink yet.”

The sulking intensifies.

Temari let out another laugh, ignoring the way that her sand keeps batting the side of her head in an attempt to annoy her. Flinging out her arms and dragging her brothers close, she gives them a quick squeeze, ignoring Kankuro’s flailing and Gaara’s long-suffering stare. “I love you both,” she said fondly, dropping a quick kiss on both of their heads and dodging up into the trees as Gaara’s expression becomes squinty and dangerous.

“Nee-chan!” they both snapped, chasing after her with revenge etched on their features.

“Can’t we have one day with dignity?” Baki asked the gods where he stood beside Chiyo-baasama.

Chiyo snorted and smacked Baki with the Kazekage hat that she still refused to wear. “Young’uns,” she snapped, grumbling to herself and causing her ANBU guard to take a carefully measured step away. “Always complaining about something or another.” Continuing to grumble under her breath, she swept into a run, causing her retinue to scramble to follow as she chased after the idiot scamps that were probably going to slip on the trees because they forgot moisture was a thing. She never had this much trouble with any of the other Kazekage children, she was  _ sure _ .


End file.
